//------------------------------// // 12. The Thieves of Magic - Part 1 // Story: BPT: A Midnight Stroll through Time // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// A deep sigh was carried by the winds blowing across the grassy plains as Midnight peered around and had found himself dropped into what looked like literal nowhere. He’d just finished another time-jump, but there was nothing in sight. He didn’t even see a sign of civilization! No roads, no farmlands, nothing but a sea of grass and very distant hills. He sighed again as he felt reminded of when he woke up in a similar predicament and later found himself over a millennia in the past after meeting Star Swirl. It was a lonely feeling. “Welp, nothing ventured nothing gained,” Midnight muttered as he chose a random direction and just walked. To pass the time, Midnight actually decided to sing a little. “99 buckets of oats on the wall, 99 buckets of oats, take one down, pass it around, 98 buckets of oats on the wall,” he sang unenthusiastically, and continued to sing. It was only when he sang to the seventy-fifth bucket that Midnight began to feel something. He stopped and peered around, seeing more of the same although he was certain he could see some woods in the horizon. What is this…? This feeling, it’s… The atmosphere feels… wrong! Indeed. As he continued to walk and try to conclude what this feeling was, Midnight then began to see something in the air. Rising smoke. “Oh! Maybe it’s a town or something!” He slapped on his pega-goggles, feeling the transformation and the new leathery wings return before he took flight! He flapped as hard as he could, giddy for a change of scenery, hoping for a market to buy something to eat. He had food but he wanted something sweet other than strawberry preserves on bread. But as he got closer, he noticed there was a rather copious amount of rising smoke, much more than chimneys could belch, especially in the middle of the day. Something was wrong, and it wasn’t just that feeling he’d been sensing before. He saw the smoke ascending past the forest he’d seen earlier and as he passed it over, he gasped! It was a town that looked like it had been ransacked by a stampeding herd of rhinos! He saw houses and buildings wrecked a few on fire, what looked to have been a marketplace was vandalized, and everywhere were unicorns and a few pegasi and earth ponies looking weak, with some earth ponies and pegasi going to and fro to help them. Midnight descended behind the wreck of what looked to have been a church and reverted to his unicorn form before venturing out. As he walked through the streets covered with debris, he heard weak moans and groans, a few foals crying, whispers soothing, and then he saw somepony shouting, “Let’s get all these ponies to the inn, it’s the only place we can house them until help arrives!” He looked to see a unicorn stallion who looked oddly familiar. Midnight approached and called, “Excuse me!” The unicorn stallion faced Midnight and looked bewildered, “Do I know you…?” Now Midnight recognized the stallion! This was the unicorn colt he met, along with his earth pony father, in the village of Everfree just before he’d witnessed the origin of the lunar ponies! The unicorn had a maple brown coat, a mane of red like leaves in autumn, emerald green eyes, his mark was a flaming hammer. “Uh…No,” Midnight had to get out of there quick before this guy recognized him but he needed to know what had happened here. “Um, could you tell me what’s going on? I saw the smoke and came to see for myself.” “We were attacked,” the unicorn answered. “My name is Wright Forge, I’m the local blacksmith, and for now, I’m taking charge of the relief efforts here.” “You were attacked?! By what?” Midnight was aghast. The Equestria he’d known had always been peaceful but these were olden times when the kingdom was not the shining society he had been whisked away from. “Two monsters,” Wright looked morose. “One of them was a centaur, the other a gargoyle. They just appeared last night and targeted the unicorns first. I managed to escape by hiding with my family in our cellar. When we came out this morning, we found our home like this, and all the unicorns who’d been unfortunate enough to be caught were like that poor soul over there.” Midnight looked at the unicorn Wright pointed out and saw the poor mare looked drained, her eyes glazed, and even worse! “Her mark! It’s gone!” “Yes…” Wright nodded. “But that’s not the worst of it. All these unicorns, as well as a few pegasi and earth ponies, have been robbed of their magic.” That was it! realized Midnight with a gasp. That sense of wrongness in the air, he’d been feeling in the grasslands – There was no magic! “After those monsters couldn’t find any more unicorns, they moved on,” Wright explained further, “and left our home like this.” As if to add insult to injury, a nearby building on fire appeared to choose that particular moment to topple and come crashing down in an explosion of smoke, cinders, and wreckage, some ponies nearby screaming from the noise. “Oh no! Somepony might be in there!” Midnight looked to the burning wreckage but Wright placed an assuring hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, those of us still able in body as well as magic managed to get everypony out of all the burning buildings,” Wright assured. “But now we have to get these fires out and help all we can here. Would you mind lending a helping hoof?” “You can count on me,” Midnight promised. And they did. Midnight had learned a thing or two about organization from Twilight and had asked Wright to gather all the able so they’d know exactly what they were working with. The majority were earth ponies and pegasi, only a few unicorns had escaped the monsters with their magic intact. With Wright backing him, Midnight ordered the pegasi to gather as many rainclouds as they could to put out the fires, and charged the earth ponies with removing as much debris as they could, assigning a single unicorn for each team to help with their telekinesis. He kept another team of volunteers to help the wounded and drained to the inn, the only place standing that could house them, and asked for anypony with knowledge of medicine to help out however they could. Midnight did his best to avoid Wright however. He was taking a risk by remaining, as Wright might recognize him from when he met Midnight as a colt. But these ponies needed him, and he would remain so long as that was so. It took three days, but soon things began to look up. Alas, the ponies whose magic had been stolen did to improve in their conditions. The healers feared they would get worse to the point where it would be too late. Seeing them in such a sorry state hurt Midnight, and he knew that somehow he had to help. But I’m gonna need some help. Midnight went to the room in the inn he’d been given and wrote in his two-way journal. ‘Dear Prince Sombra, I have arrived in a time where it appears Equestria is threatened by two monsters who steal magic from ponies. They have been described as a centaur and a gargoyle, going around and draining ponies dry of their magic, and this causes their cutie-marks to vanish. I found a town that was recently attacked by these monsters and have spent the last few days helping them however I could. But the ponies who have been robbed of their magic show no signs of improvement and the healers fear they may not last for much longer. Master, please! I must know as much as you can tell me of these monstrous thieves of magic, and how they were dealt with. I promise to be discreet in my efforts to help but I cannot stand by and let this happen. Your loyal apprentice, Midnight Blaze’